Utilizing with each of his new releases the uncanny knack for showmanship he grew to master, Alfred Hitchcock's series of PSAs and trailers made for the cinema experience remain impeccable even today. However, as the time is apparently right for biopics of the director himself to start hitting the screen, the marketing department behind the Anthony Hopkins vehicle “Hitchcock” have followed through with a PSA of their own, albeit unintentionally stricken in its delivery system with a similar irony that Hitch himself practiced.

Designed for in-cinema viewing before the main attraction, the PSA (via SlashFilm) features Hopkins in character as Hitchcock decrying the use of cell phones during the film. Beyond the appeal of the actor's portrayal affecting his voice around the words, “talking or texting,” the piece otherwise displays no further look at the film it's promoting, namely Sacha Gervasi's fictionalized account of the making of “Psycho” (The first trailer for which we received last week).

However, as either the studio's meta-commentary on the state of cinema-going itself, or simply a method of release too quick to realize its meaning, the PSA was filmed inside the theater by a patron holding a cellphone camera. Cheeky. No matter, since Gervasi's film looks compelling enough to weather any ill-conceived studio “jokes,” and with a cast that includes Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, James D'Arcy, Jessica Biel, Toni Colette, Danny Huston, and Michael Stuhlbarg among many others, we'll be making a trip ourselves when the film opens November 23rd.